When the Urge Becomes Urgent🔗

Somebody once asked me, 'How do I get enlightenment? I want to…real bad and urgently.'

I tell you, just this very feeling is enough to make you get enlightened. Don't bother about anything else. Only thing needed is that it is true and not just a word. Just look into yourself: the way you feel, it should not be just a question. It should be a quest.

Understand question is word. Quest is a feeling. These lines, 'How do I get enlightenment? I want to: real bad and urgently,' If they are a quest in you, if this question has come out as a deep quest, then you don't need anything. Just boil. Let the whole being burn with this quest. That's enough. Nothing else needs to be done. Let this boiling be intense.

Allow this boiling. Allow this burning. Allow this intensity. Allow this urgency. Let the urge become urgent. Let the question become a quest. Let it just eat your ego. So the quest happens to you by divine grace.

People ask me, 'Swamiji, have you been enlightened by the divine grace or by your effort or by your quest?' I tell them, you having the quest is the first sign that you are having the divine grace. Unless you have the divine grace, you will not have the quest.

Understand, this quest or seeking is like a seed. It is like a seed feeling suffocated inside the shell. See, the life which is inside the seed, unless it feels suffocated inside the shell, won't open up and become a tree. The moment the seed starts feeling that it should open up, the seeking, feeling the urgency and quest to open up to become a tree, it means already the tree inside the seed has started expressing itself.

If you are feeling that you should get enlightened, the Buddha in you has opened his eyes. The Buddha in you has started waking up. All you need to do is open your eyes. Allow this seeking. From morning till night let it boil, let it create a deep dissatisfaction in you, let it swallow all your depressions. In life you may have so many other depressions and sufferings; all those sufferings will be swallowed by this one suffering.

The great master Ramana Maharishi, who lived in South Bharat, used to say that the first seeking is like the stick used to burn the dead bodies. In Bharat, dead bodies are burnt with a stick. They use only stick to burn the dead bodies properly. So after burning, they throw this stick also in the same fire. In the same way, your seeking should be like this stick. It should burn all the other desires of you in this world and along with this, the seeking desire also will be put in the same fire and it will be burnt.

A beautiful Zen story:

A Zen student was intensely studying under her master but she was not able to experience true meditation for a very long time.

One full moon night, she was carrying a bucket of water suspended on a bamboo stick. She saw the reflection of the moon in the bucket. Suddenly, the bamboo broke.

The water fell out of the bucket. The reflection of the moon disappeared and so did her ego.

When the seeking is intense, it will remove the juice from your ego. The green grass becomes like a haystack. Just a match is enough to burn the whole haystack down. The Ultimate can happen in a split second through a simple happening.

So understand, let this seeking, let this quest, let this seeking burn all your other sufferings, all your other depressions, all your other desires, all your other concerns about life. Let it happen and suddenly you will see that this seeking disappears. When the seeking disappears, you are enlightened. You have achieved what you are seeking.

Meditation Technique – Visualization

The physical body is that which you are carrying now, you can feel now, which is made out of flesh and bone. Mental body or the dream body is the body made of all your imaginations put together. The boundary of the physical body ends at your skin. But the boundary of the mental body ends at the limit where you can imagine. Please understand, where the mental body ends you don't even know because there is no end to the imagination.

Bring awareness to the extent you can imagine. It is a very subtle technical truth. When you bring awareness to the physical body, it gets healed. When you bring awareness to the mental body, it gets healed.

How will we bring our awareness to the mental boundary? Slowly, slowly, slowly, expand your visualization. For example, first visualize you inside your body. Then visualize this whole area is inside your body. It means your imagination is expanding. Then slowly expand and feel this whole city is inside your body. Expand your imagination to the next level; feel this whole country is inside you. Expand the imagination; feel this whole earth is inside you. Expand the imagination, bringing more and more awareness to your imagination part, bringing more and more awareness to your dreaming part.

See, inside you there are different parts. One is this physical body. The other one is the dream body which you experience in the dream state. The third is the deep sleep. I am trying to expand you step by step. Bring more awareness to your dream body, to your mental body.

Mental body is the one which you experience during the dream state. Try to make the mental body sharper, clearer, more aware, more expanded. Awakening the ability to imagine, bringing more awareness to your imagination, that is what we are trying to achieve through this technique or process.

In the last process, we tried to bring more awareness to the waking state, more energy to the waking state, by awakening the kundalini shakti which is in the physical body. Now we are trying to bring more awareness to the dream body. To bring more awareness to the deep sleep body, you need initiation. Only Master can initiate or the Energy Darshan can work on the deep sleep body.

Now we will work on the dream body by expanding our imagination beyond our imagination.

It is a wonderful process. First it will be easy for you to imagine this whole room in your inner space. Then visualize this whole street is inside your inner space. Then visualize the city; whatever you know about the city is part of you. Then expand, visualize whatever you know as this country, as part of you. Then expand; whatever you know as this planet is part of you. Then expand; whatever you know as the solar system is part of you. Then expand; whatever you know as the universe is part of you. Literally I am asking you to experience 'Aham Brahmasmi – I am the Whole.'

See, in between, your imagination may just drop and you will be there in the deep silence, it is ok. As long as the imagination goes, expand, expand and expand. So your whole dream state is flooded with awareness. Your whole dream state is filled with your restful awareness. It is a very powerful technique. Even though you may not be able to logically connect with this technique, go through this. You will not have nightmares; your dreams will become dreams with awareness. Even though you are dreaming, you will be very clear you are dreaming. You will not have nightmares; you will not be disturbed; you will not be overpowered by your dreams.

Your mental body will become very powerful; your visualizations will become very powerful. It will sharpen your visualization. That is the result we will try to achieve through this.